Farm planning: 'Patience with serial objectors will run out' (2025)

“Patience for dealing with serial objectors will run out”, according to the Teagasc Farm Buildings and Infrastructure specialist, Tom Fallon.

Speaking at the Farm Building Seminar organised by Teagasc and the Irish Farm Buildings Association on Tuesday, April 15, at the Ardboyne Hotel in Navan, Co. Meath, the farm buildings advisor discussed challenges in delivering a farm building project.

Fallon said: “The Government is conscious with domestic houses that we get on with building and that might help farmers in a sense.

“I don’t think county councils want planning going on for a year or two years, I’d say the patience for dealing with serial objectors will run out.”

The speakers at the event and topics discussed included:

• Dr Robert Leonard, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM): Building Specifications;
• Ciaran Roche, FBD: Responsibilities of the farmer in relation to safety for a building project;
• Tom Fallon, Teagasc: Improvements in the standard of farm buildings – TAMS and Project Management;
• Colm Conaty, Conaty Steel.

Fallon gave an overview on slurry storage and said that 90% of all slurry in Ireland is stored in roofed slatted tanks with 7% stored in overground tanks, less than 4% in open concrete tanks and less than 1% stored in lagoons.

On how buildings interact with animals, Fallon said cobble surfaces “are a disaster for hoof health”.

The buildings specialist said: “Animals have flat feet. They hate walking on something like this [cobble surface].

“Sole bruising and white line legions are the two most common legions in cows feet so if you want sole bruising – this is how you go about it,” the Teagasc buildings specialist said.

He added that where yard scrapers are being installed, the cobbled surface causes issues also, and suggested farmers prioritise a flat surface with grooves for cows to walk on.

He advised against going “all out for grip but don’t think of the animal” and suggested “simple grooving systems” as being more advisable.

TAMS

DAFM’s Dr. Robert Leonard said that DAFM is currently in the process of updating the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) costings sand said “some of them are a bit high, some of them are a bit low.

“We’re going through a significant review of them. There’s about 440 different things we have to cost and were going through them at the moment.

“Prices since Covid went up more than double but they’ve come down again. We’re not as far out as we were a year ago but we’re still not right and we are trying to get that done as quickly as possible at the moment.”

Farm planning exemption for slurry storage

The farm planning exemption on slurry storage “is expected to be rolled out before the end of the year” according to Leonard.

He said: “Exactly when, we don’t have a final date yet but we are being told we can expect it will be in place in time for applications in the tranche that closes in December so hopefully late October time.

“It will be for limited sizes and exemptions are there for certain conditions including for Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) exemptions disappear in all of those cases but that is ongoing negotiations to see what will actually happen there.”

Leonard said that An Coimisiún Pleanála [a new body that will replace An Bord Pleanála] is “coming in in the next few weeks” and said it is expected that the new planning act will speed-up the process in dealing with planning appeals and serial objectors.

On issues with irregular appeals delaying farm construction projects, he said: “We’re aware of that and with An Coimisiún Pleanála, I think there’s tighter timelines to get responses in there where there are appeals, it will speed that up.

“They are leaving in the option for third parties to object but there is a much tighter timeline for them to get those appeals heard so you don’t have such long delays that have been there.”

On using TAMS-aided buildings for their intended purpose, the DAFM representative said: “The building has to be used for that purpose for a minimum of five years after the payment of the grant and they [DAFM] do inspect up to five years so it’s something to watch out for.

Slatted shed building

A farmer at the event asked Leonard if support funding could be availed of for a slatted-tank now and for a shed over the structure at a later date.

He said: “If you were to get the 60% grant under the Animal Welfare and Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS) for slurry storage, you could apply for that for a mass concrete tank, yes you could come back in three years time to put a shed over that no problem and still get a TAMS grant for that shed as well.”

“There’s a separate €90,000 grant for the slurry storage and the shed – that’s not retrospective but it’s there for anyone who’s applying at the moment.

“You can do it either way because the overall investment ceiling is the same weather you apply now or do it in two stages and you might probably get it more cost effective if you’re doing the shed at the same time as the tank.”